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6th Jul 2000, 18:27
From Sydney Morning Herald 7/7/00
Airport blackout crisis
By ROBERT WAINWRIGHT, Transport Writer
Sydney Airport faced a frightening test of its emergency procedures last night when the main air traffic terminal control centre lost power, and with it radio and radar contact with 20 planes in the air above the city for up to 15 minutes.
The blackout occurred during a peak traffic period. More than 1,000 people on domestic and international flights were forced to circle Sydney, their pilots unable to communicate with the air traffic controllers who co-ordinate traffic movement between five and 45 nautical miles out from the airport.
Airservices Australia officials could not explain the power loss last night, nor could they say if there was any infringement of the separation rules which keep planes at a safe distance from each other.
Officials, who insisted that passengers were not in danger, said the professionalism of pilots and air traffic control staff, who realised the potential danger and switched to pre-determined holding patterns, prevented a possible mid-air accident.
At the height of the emergency the Herald was contacted by an air traffic controller who said staff inside the building had no way of contacting pilots or the airport control tower, which directs aircraft as they taxi, take off and land. Nor could they contact the Melbourne or Brisbane centres which run the wider air traffic control systems across Australia.
Passengers aboard some aircraft said they were told there was a power and control tower problem. Others were told there was an instrument problem which forced their plane to head back out to sea for 15 minutes.
The Federal Minister for Transport, Mr Anderson, who is in London on the Centenary of Federation tour, has called for an immediate report into the "serious" incident.
The emergency also caused delays for planes leaving and arriving over the next few hours. Between 6pm and 7pm - when more than 60 aircraft normally arrive and depart - just four aircraft moved in or out of the airport.
One air traffic controller described the blackout inside the Terminal Control Unit as catastrophic. "There was a complete power failure. They lost everything from the lights in the room, to the radar and the air-ground radio frequencies," he said.
"There is a semi-regular occurrence of failures, but this was catastrophic. I wouldn't like to have been up in the air.
"I don't know why the back-ups didn't work, or why it failed in the first place, and why there isn't a simple battery-power radio back-up system to talk to aircraft."
A spokesman for Airservices, Mr Richard Dudley, said the power supply was lost for 12 minutes just after 6pm. The power was restored after two minutes, but it took 10 minutes for the system to be rebooted.
"At no time was there any danger to passengers in the air or on the ground," he said.
"We have had power outages over decades but in terms of magnitude I would not like to comment at this stage."
But Mr Dudley described the problem as a power outage which happened about 6pm.
"There were 20 planes in the air at the time, both arriving and departing.
"The cause of the outage is unknown at this stage though we already have technicians at the site.
"The staff and the aircraft crews immediately went to stand-by procedure, but the aircraft would have been sequenced for arrivals and departures."
A spokesman for Mr Anderson said: "The Australian Transport Safety Board is aware of the serious incident and is investigating.
"A report will go to the minister in London as soon as possible.
"The primary concern of Airservices is safety, and they should be ensuring that maintenance is always up to speed."
Airport blackout crisis
By ROBERT WAINWRIGHT, Transport Writer
Sydney Airport faced a frightening test of its emergency procedures last night when the main air traffic terminal control centre lost power, and with it radio and radar contact with 20 planes in the air above the city for up to 15 minutes.
The blackout occurred during a peak traffic period. More than 1,000 people on domestic and international flights were forced to circle Sydney, their pilots unable to communicate with the air traffic controllers who co-ordinate traffic movement between five and 45 nautical miles out from the airport.
Airservices Australia officials could not explain the power loss last night, nor could they say if there was any infringement of the separation rules which keep planes at a safe distance from each other.
Officials, who insisted that passengers were not in danger, said the professionalism of pilots and air traffic control staff, who realised the potential danger and switched to pre-determined holding patterns, prevented a possible mid-air accident.
At the height of the emergency the Herald was contacted by an air traffic controller who said staff inside the building had no way of contacting pilots or the airport control tower, which directs aircraft as they taxi, take off and land. Nor could they contact the Melbourne or Brisbane centres which run the wider air traffic control systems across Australia.
Passengers aboard some aircraft said they were told there was a power and control tower problem. Others were told there was an instrument problem which forced their plane to head back out to sea for 15 minutes.
The Federal Minister for Transport, Mr Anderson, who is in London on the Centenary of Federation tour, has called for an immediate report into the "serious" incident.
The emergency also caused delays for planes leaving and arriving over the next few hours. Between 6pm and 7pm - when more than 60 aircraft normally arrive and depart - just four aircraft moved in or out of the airport.
One air traffic controller described the blackout inside the Terminal Control Unit as catastrophic. "There was a complete power failure. They lost everything from the lights in the room, to the radar and the air-ground radio frequencies," he said.
"There is a semi-regular occurrence of failures, but this was catastrophic. I wouldn't like to have been up in the air.
"I don't know why the back-ups didn't work, or why it failed in the first place, and why there isn't a simple battery-power radio back-up system to talk to aircraft."
A spokesman for Airservices, Mr Richard Dudley, said the power supply was lost for 12 minutes just after 6pm. The power was restored after two minutes, but it took 10 minutes for the system to be rebooted.
"At no time was there any danger to passengers in the air or on the ground," he said.
"We have had power outages over decades but in terms of magnitude I would not like to comment at this stage."
But Mr Dudley described the problem as a power outage which happened about 6pm.
"There were 20 planes in the air at the time, both arriving and departing.
"The cause of the outage is unknown at this stage though we already have technicians at the site.
"The staff and the aircraft crews immediately went to stand-by procedure, but the aircraft would have been sequenced for arrivals and departures."
A spokesman for Mr Anderson said: "The Australian Transport Safety Board is aware of the serious incident and is investigating.
"A report will go to the minister in London as soon as possible.
"The primary concern of Airservices is safety, and they should be ensuring that maintenance is always up to speed."